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If you haven't braked as soon as you see the corner, you're almost certainly going straight into the bales," advises Will Kinsman, head of motorsport content at Goodwood, drily. He's not a man prone to histrionics, which is just as well, because every summer he's in charge of the most eclectic bunch of seriously fast, seriously expensive cars climbing at considerable speed up the hillclimb at the Festival of Speed.

To misquote Kipling, it takes a very cool person to keep their head when all around them are losing theirs. When you have former drivers from the competitive, adrenaline-fuelled worlds of Formula 1, Nascar, the World Rally Championship and more, all trying to perform for the 60,000-strong crowd each day as well as post a decent time on the hillclimb course that is Lord March's driveway, there's potential for, well, a few "offs".

The course itself is historic (and deceptive, but more of that shortly). It was first used in 1936 by Freddie March, the ninth Duke, who was a keen Brooklands racer and organised a hillclimb using the 1.16-mile, tree-lined drive of Goodwood House, in West Sussex, for the Lancia Car Club; naturally, he won it.

Since then, the same stretch of road has had more famous cars and drivers on it than any other circuit in the world, because the Festival of Speed covers a multitude of disciplines. The event, affectionately referred to as the world's largest motorsport garden party, has more than 400 cars and bikes going up its hillclimb each summer over three days – four, if you count the Moving Motor Show which precedes the main event on the Thursday – whereas Silverstone, for example, although with a longer history of motorsport, hosts only 20 F1 cars a year.

We're at the course ahead of the event, which means we're rather limited to a low-speed runCredit:
Christopher Pledger

The Festival of Speed hillclimb is an intriguing motorsport spectacle. From a spectator point of view, it looks curiously simple, at least at the start. One vehicle at a time off the line, straight up through the trees to the first corner, turn right where it's nice and wide, past the house, being careful to keep off the grass – but there's plenty of width, surely – and Bob's your uncle.

Only, not quite so. "A good start is really important," says Kinsman. The four-wheel drive and rally cars get a speed advantage, whereas the big Nascar beasts have lots of power but no grip.

Whoops! This Nascar came a cropperCredit:
Fiona Hanson

The first corner is actually two, which is interesting. "The first is relatively straightforward," advises Kinsman, "but in the second you feel you should carry more speed through than you dare; the way the other roads join [other drives meet the main one] makes you feel the road is wider than it ­actually is."

It gets trickier still: "The only vaguely straight bit isn't actually straight, as you go past the house and under the bridge. It's a series of sweeps rather than a straight line."

And the worst is still to come: a sweeping left called Molecomb followed by a horrific flint wall, which looks picturesque at any other time of the year but forms its own horrors at the festival.

"Molecomb is the most important part of the course," advises Kinsman. Three things need to happen at once: drivers come over a crest as they simultaneously go through a slight kink and are required to brake. If they haven't braked as soon as they see Molecomb, it's inevitably too late and a crash into the hay bales ensues, as it has many times over the years.

"Conversely, however, carrying speed through Molecomb is important for a good time," says Kinsman, smiling wryly. "So people who crash there are a mixture of first-timers and good drivers going for a fast time."

Next up is the wall. No serious gradients, and it's a straight blast up to the flint wall, carrying speed around the ­S-bend shape of it, if you're after a good time. "Apart from the scare factor of heading straight at a flint wall," ­explains Kinsman, the road is "heavily covered by trees, so moisture stays on the track there and it's quite dark". Easy, then.

If you make it around there in one piece, it's a "short squirt" to the last corner which looks deceptively easy (there's a theme here ...) but is a right-hander and you have to carry speed through because by this point you're nearing the top of the hill.

Oh, and if you're in a quick car, then what is the final piece of straight road before the finish flag ­becomes a left-hander, but it's only "one for the brave", according to Kinsman. Quite what qualifies as brave among the loons who take to this course every summer doesn't bear thinking about.

This year, highlights for visitors on the track include a batch of Ferraris to celebrate the marque's 70th anniversary, the F1 contingent and a Brooklands commemoration, with the overall theme honouring high watermarks in motorsport represented by the loudest, fastest or most complicated race cars in history.

There will be a celebration of the Dunlop dynasty of motorcycle road-racing fame, and the usual array of dragsters, art-deco European cars, as well as global and UK dynamic debuts of road cars and, of course, a glimpse of the future with hybrid and electric technology.

All this takes planning, and care. Lord March and his team keep a dedicated eye on the estate's heritage as well as its future.

"It's an 18-month planning cycle, and we start building the event in May," says Kinsman. "We build a small city, with stands and infrastructure that all disappears within two weeks of the event being over."

There are generous conservation ­efforts, too: "The whole event is there to sustain the estate," says Kinsman.

The estate includes a racecourse, a motor racing circuit and a busy aerodromeCredit:
Andrew Crowley

"Goodwood's mission is to preserve the estate for the next 300 years; we have exclusion zones around tree roots, not digging more than we need to in the off-road arena, remedial works to re-aerate the ground where the temporary roads have been. We've even moved the Drivers' Club to protect an avenue of trees."

It's a glorious vision of the past and the future, simultaneously preserved and developed by a tight-knit band of staff at Goodwood who fully appreciate the elements – not to mention the meticulous planning - required to make the event come alive each year. There's truly nothing else quite like it.